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Gary,
I liked your exercises regarding teaching the boys how to press with the front 5 acting as a unit. How do you instruct the back 5 to move themselves in the same situation? There are a lot of factors to consider when instructing where your back 5 will go and position themselves. Do your teams/players understand all the nuances or is that always a work in progress? I assume there is additional video/instruction that deals with all 11 players. Also, how do you handle the defensive unit when the pressure is broke or the ball is in a different part of the field?
Thanks
J
Lot’s of good questions Jason, that are going to need video at some point.
How do you instruct the back 5 to move themselves in the same situation?
Assuming I’m interpreting your question correctly, in our core training, we don’t choreograph (in the same manner) what the back 5 do while the front 5 press.
The outcome of our pressing is usually:
- We win possession up the field.
- Opponent loses ball out of bounds.
- The opponent bypasses midfield and launches it forward.
- The opponent breaks both lines of pressure with a pass to winger.
- The opponent somehow breaks all pressure and is now running at our back line.
No need to discuss first two cases.
Case 3
We’ve trained this in the following manner. Set the back 5 in their natural positions, and have someone 30 – 40 yards away launch balls at them one at a time. The two basic scenarios are: (a) They are to settle it, and start their ball circulation as usual. Or (b), their first touch is to clear the ball down field.
Which of the two (a) or (b) is communicated while the ball is in transit.
Case 4
This has been more verbal instruction (as opposed to serious choreography) to our outside backs. Our outside backs must read the pass to the opposing winger, and close down space to either anticipate or disrupt play.
Case 5
Again, in the beginning this isn’t seriously choreographed, but more verbal instruction. If the opponent is running at us with space, our back line is instructed to “Delay”. Meaning, don’t dive in and try to win the ball. Delay (contain), until they make a mistake. Delay (contain), and let our midfield recover.
Do your teams/players understand all the nuances or is that always a work in progress?
In everything, always a work in progress. Like I mentioned elsewhere, even with ball circulation between the back 5 which the same group has been doing for 3 years.
Hope that sheds some light Jason.
Gary,
This questions pertains to the front 5 pressing.
Do you have a preference on which direction your want your team forcing play of the opponent backs when pressing high?
In the video it appears you have your forwards forcing play inward. The advantage is you’re forcing the opponent to pass dangerously in front of their own goal. The disadvantage would be more field to cover with your supporting players.
I’ve seen demonstrations of forcing the opponent outward. You lose the dangerous play in front of the opponent goal, but you restrict field space more pinning the opponent to the sideline resulting in more turnovers to your team. I can see this being a little easier for a team to understand as the restriction of space becomes more apparent.
Thank you,
Paul
I cannot answer for Gary; however, when you force inward in the 4-3-3, you are forcing towards where you have numbers (i.e. your two ACM and DCM behind those two).
Thanks Ryan for the response. I see the numerical advantage and I’m sure there are other factors of consideration such as the abilities of the opponent with the ball centrally, if they are comfortable or not with pressure on their backs, if there are only two mids, are they flat versus stacked, etc. To be quite frank, I haven’t worked on full team pressing choreography with the top 5, instead focused on the individual players in specific moments of play when possession was lost. Obviously, not nearly as effective, not enough repetition and although it was easy for the players to figure out the solution once a freeze in play was introduced, the cohesive pressure in real time was not apparent in our game and I see this solving the issue signficantly.
Gary,
When a player on the other team plays a long ball, I’m surprised that one of your two choices is to play a long ball right back instead of controlling it, maintaining possession and working it back up the field. Can you explain?
Hey Frank,
By no means do we get in a kickball contest under any circumstance. What Gary meant to say is we work specifically on defensive headers when the other team is launching long balls down the field. By this, we teach the proper technique to head the ball upwards, allowing time for defensive transition of the 5 attacking players getting “home,” or back to their positions.
There is always a specified outlet player for these situations depending on the the opponent, their formation, and weaknesses.
Hope that clarifies a little.
Spot on Ryan!!! We force inside to our #8 & #10 (offensive mids who are simultaneously shrinking the field in unison). There are scenarios on opponents goal kicks where our outside backs leave their man and step aggressively to the opponents outside backs. More to follow on this in future sessions/videos
Absolutely Paul. Seems like something simple and logical right? The pressing in unison that is…..it will work wonders for your team if done properly and repeated/rehearsed constantly in training. Give the players that sense of “Identity.” Winning the ball that high up the field is almost creating a goal scoring situation out of nothing…..they need to take pride in that, the same as scoring a goal, or assisting, a good save by a gk, ect. Bleed this into them and you will truly see a difference on the weekend.
Hi Brian and Gary,
How often does the high pressure from your front 5 get easily broken where you’ve had to adjust tactically or do you rather continue to press and take your chances? What types of adjustments have you made? I’m curious to see what you have done in this scenario where a team that is technically/tactically better is consistently getting past your attacking and midfield and into your defensive third, i.e. the boys from La Masia.
In the training video, the front 5 rush forward to press High.
What about other scenarios: when the ball is lost behind the forwards? Is it as simple as rushing backward and setting up shop similarly except in the other direction?
Is there an area/scenario where, when the ball is lost, the focus goes from forcing the ball inward to forcing the ball outward, away from our own goal?
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